Hitori
by SaintOfBadDecisions
Summary: "Long ago, that woman forgot the meaning of fear." A Chikage/OFC fic that takes place after the events of Hijikata's route.
1. Humanity but no Humans

"Humans are absolutely selfish," Rei grumbled, walking down the slope of her land toward the two corpses under her favorite tree. It was the only cherry blossom that bothered to bloom in the god forsaken village she was left with, and their blood would sully the chances of it blooming at all.

"How would you know Rei-hime?" the tiny girl next to her pipped, holding tightly onto Rei's kimono as to not tumble in her geta perhaps a size or so too large.

"Because long ago I was friends with one," she sighed, daunted by telling the tale over and over to the girl.

The child's forgetfulness would end her someday, for that she was certain. Though she couldn't exactly be blamed, the poor thing remembered very little of the time before Rei found her.

"Mmm –"she traipsed down quicker and began prodding at one of the unfortunate souls, both stabbed through and through or so it seemed, "what do you think they were fighting for?"

Rei couldn't fathom a guess, but upon reaching them she could feel that they weren't exactly as human as she thought, nor were they corpses quite yet.

"Atashi," she sighed, rubbing her forehead, "I'll need your help getting them home."

The small girl nodded while she grabbed the ankle of the darker haired man and begun hauling him back up the mountain, her strength never failed to amaze Rei, someone so small oni or not would surely have a hard time doing much at her size.

Rei opted to take the blond; there was something about the aura he exuded that made her profoundly interested.

"You – girl behind the tree, I saw you ogling the corpses," Rei called out to the cowering form of a rather oddly dressed woman, "state your name."

"M –"the girl stuttered.

"We haven't all day child," she moaned.

"Chi-Chizuru," she stuttered, running behind Rei's retreating form.

They both reeked of demon blood, though the darker of the two had a strange tinge to it that made Rei's nose curl while she wiped away at the wound in his chest. The strange girl peered over her shoulder the entire time; they'd clearly had some form of connection.

"Tell me what happened," she didn't bother to look behind her to meet the girl's eyes, she'd seen the look too many times before yet still couldn't become immune to it – sadness, she was no good with it.

Not to mention every time Rei did manage to meet the girl's eyes she looked away, fear impacted people in strange ways.

"They – they were," and she burst into tears.

She had some involvement in the ordeal, and if Rei could assume correctly she was the lover of one of those men, she couldn't have cared less in the moment but a sick curiosity stuck in the back of her mind.

The humans had entertainment of some sorts; oni that had no clan to speak of had nothing. Though envy for those vile creatures was not something Rei would ever admit it, she was neither above nor below them just starkly different.

"Spit it out," her patience was wearing thin, the babbling mess of an oni sat before her, eyes filling again and again with tears and still getting nowhere.

"They were fighting and _he_ –"she spat, finally showing something other than sadness, "felt like he had something to prove – he nearly killed him!" she screeched like a wounded animal toward the end, chest heaving.

"I will take care of them both, go to my little one and help her clean your man, if he wakes he will be looking for you," Rei shrugged feeling a smug sense of delight that the black haired one that smelt funny was claimed but the blond – the one that exuded all of the power – had no connections at the moment.

Moments later she found herself knelt at his bedside brushing a few tinged stands of blond that rested on his damp forehead, and hummed a song her mother used to when she hurt herself training.

"You'll be alright," she sung toying with his hair for a few moments longer before he cracked an eye open, "I'll fix you right up little Kazama."

OooooOoOOooOOooooOOoOoooooOOOOoOOoOOOooooOOOoooOOOOOOoooOOOOOoo

It felt like I was being ripped to shreds from the inside out, I remember fighting Hakuoki in the field, I remember being run through. I remembered it all and the pain reverberating through my body served as an even more staunch reminder.

What I didn't remember was the room I was in; I was laid precariously atop tatami wrapped tightly in gauze.

I looked down expecting to see my wound, the proof that I was bested by a copy of a demon, instead I saw yards of white bandages tinged in the middle with red, blood – he was the first to ever make me see my own blood.

When I searched my soul for reasons to hate him I found none, he showed me how jaded I was, how cocky and entitled I was for believing that a demon was better than a man with the resolve of all of Japan.

I didn't know how – or if – I'd ever be able to face a proper demon again, not without ridicule. But, I knew that I would explain who Toshizo Hijikata was; I'd make sure they knew to not attempt to best Hakuoki, it wouldn't happen. Not even for the strongest oni of the west.

My head darted to the door that emitted a faint jingle then opened in a flourish. All I saw was a bustle of dark red kimono, all the way up to the rather showy breasts of a woman who was – even by oni standards – quite beautiful, though she kept the most important feature on her body shielded, she would not meet me in the eye regardless of how hard I stared.

"It's good to see you awake," her voice was heady, like a fine wine rather than the bell like tinkle that was Chizuru's, soothing the ache that took root in my head.

"Where am I?" it came out like a demand, I'd forgotten that I'd resigned myself to nothing more than a regular oni at this point, no better because I wasn't.

She shook her head, waves of blackened violet swaying about, "you are in my home," she confided, still looking at the floor.

Either she was mild mannered or hiding something, though perhaps I just wanted to see the rest of her face.

"You found me –"

"Under _my_ tree, an oni like you should know whose territory is whose," she ground out, "you could have killed it."

She seemed angrier about the tree than the trespassing, through the fog of resentment I held for Hakuoki I didn't notice that we'd crossed well into another oni's territory.

"I – I'm sorry?" I tried to contain an indignant snort, obviously the woman was a _demon_ how I could not have noticed the sticky sweet miasma that coated the entire room, a shield of sorts one I knew from my own family home.

"You should be young one," she sighed, finally raising her gaze to meet mine, two black and red pools stared at me. Be it from the distance or her position you could not tell where one color started and the other ended. The lack of whites was startling.

"Did you bring others back with you," I felt a pang of remorse should I have killed Hakuoki while I knew his woman peered at the battle from behind a tree, the girl was far too curious – and helpless – to be anywhere near a battlefield, though she'd never listen. I was glad I didn't make her my wife, I'd end up killing her, pure blood or not.

"I did –" she simpered, bringing a delicate lip into her mouth to gnaw and drawing blood, the scent filled the air, it made me absolutely starving, it'd been so long.

I sat up despite the pain that clawed through my body, stitches nearly coming undone with the strain, "what's your name?" I felt like a curious child whatnot with all of the questions

She smiled, allowing a trail of blood to dribble down her chin and land where my mother would've smacked me for looking. "Young Kazama, a thoroughbred oni like you should at least know my clan name," she teased.

I wrecked my brain thinking of the clans that weren't my own – the Yukimura, no. The east – Sen's mess of a family she was no part of, the west – mine. It took me a few moments, obviously making me look daft before it came to me, "the Kuze, right?"

She raised the two circular eyebrows, everything she did held a certain level of elegance, even so much as changing her facial expressions showed that she was raised by oni who undoubtedly did not let her out of their sight.

"You're right!" she cheered with fake conviction, before turning around and blowing out the lamp by the door, "please rest easy young Kazama, I'll return with the sunrise, you'll be – " she paused to look back with that same eerie smile, "hungry."

There was no light in the small room and the noxious smell of her blood and miasma clung to the air making it hard to think of anything else, it drove me crazy until the pain lulled me back to sleep.


	2. The Rules

"Even your own body hates you," Rei muttered, wiping the sweat off of the man Chizuru called Toshizo.

After hearing the brunt of their story there was little she could do but help the man past the bumps in his extremely precarious road.

She had never heard of false oni, those who got their power from some kind of medicine derived from demon blood. The entire thing would make a lesser woman shudder in disgust.

"Will he be okay?" Chizuru's eyes were as wide as saucers, she exuded an innocence about her that Rei truly found annoying, her fawning over the man had gotten tiring to watch over their short stay.

"I can't say –"she replied blasé.

"I didn't want it to be like this," Chizuru sobbed into her hands, the girl was profoundly good at crying or so it seemed but lacked many other necessary skills, at least that of a true oni.

For a princess she seemed utterly worthless.

Rei didn't feel like dealing with the sobbing child for much longer causing her to beckon over Atashi, bless the girl's soul for having to endure what she was about to.

"Watch over these two, I must tend to our other guest."

The Kazama boy was doing leagues better than Chizuru's lover, though Rei hadn't cleared him to begin traipsing around the mansion, he looked far more trouble than he was worth.

She rapped on his door, something he'd demanded when she delivered his morning meal to find him shielded by nothing more than the tattered undergarments she'd left him in.

"I'm coming in," she sang, breathy and filled with an unmistakable lust.

She didn't particularly know anything about the man other than his name – and that was only because of the prominence of his clan – and what she'd heard from Chizuru and Toshizo when he was lucid enough to rasp out a few words here or there.

But, he interested her.

Oni, especially pure male were hard to come by. They were usually married off at young ages to ensure a good lineage. The daughters had it much worse.

Rei had vague memories of the man she was to marry. He was older than her by nearly a few decades if not more and wore a stern expression on his face perpetually. But he was a wealthy man, and to her parents giving away their only child ensured them a lifetime of riches.

She was mere collateral in their quest for status.

Their deaths were no longer mourned, time and distance had forced Rei's hand to be more objective about what happened.

That was long ago and she promised to never offer herself to a man on a platter for his desires and wiles to be met.

The lack of her clan meant a sick kind of freedom, there was nothing she could do to change it so she learned to mutate, to endure the changes of the clans as well as that of Japan itself.

"Kazama boy," she drawled poking out her lip for extra measure, "how are you feeling today?"

He was propped up on a massive pile of pillows leafing through one of the various books she let him borrow, he looked serene, and the most at peace she'd ever seen him.

"Kuze-san," he greeted never taking his eyes off the book.

"I asked a question," she chided noting that he looked divine while being studious; there was something about how he threw himself headlong into whatever task he'd been given that made her pleasantly delighted.

He finally dragged his attention from the pages long enough to offer her a withering glare, "I'm not obliged to answer you."

She chuckled at his response, "you're in my care at the moment, and it's not wise to ignore me."

His face tensed up causing Rei to ride the wave of a pang of regret though she was never one to apologize.

"I'm better," he offered.

"Your stitches?" she beckoned for him to loosen the yukata she'd given him that was once her father's favorite. She had little time for sentiment if she hadn't given him that he'd be left in the tatters and while she found western clothing dashing on him she couldn't deal with the scent of coagulating blood much longer.

Regardless of his advanced healing properties the area where he'd been stabbed was weeping, fresh blood still coated bits of the gauze she'd replaced earlier in the morning; he was still injured despite how tough he'd been trying to act.

In a few short steps she was next to him, inhaling his scent deeply. He smelt of musk and blood, and Rei found it exhilarating in the sense that he smelled like danger, how a man should smell if she had any say in the matter.

"You have a long while to go until you're – "she paused to paint on the smile she'd often found herself giving him, "perfect again."

OOoooOOOOoooOoOOOooOOOOooOOOOoOOo

The woman turned in a flourish of robes and slipped herself through the door once more, there was something about her that reeked of sadness, even if her face wouldn't tell that tale.

Her desperation did nothing to make her more interesting, the lurid glances and simpering did not make her appealing, though Chikage was sure that she knew that deep down.

Female oni were raised to be manipulative, to take the perversion of men and twist it to their favor, the way she acted spoke of a proper demon upbringing.

According to older oni the only way for a woman to get a good man was to be appealing, to offer what most men would want. Often times this left them as paramour for the hungered males of clans. Females were not to assert their dominance, they were to comply and serve.

Chikage remembered vividly the day his father told him that he would not be married off like his older brother had, apparently they'd fetched a high enough price for him alone that the already wealthy family felt no need to do so to the rest of their children.

But, that didn't stop them from being just as strict, at times he wished he was married off, being whisked away from his family had become a dream of his and it was slowly germinating his entire life.

His brother seemed happy enough eventually settling down and having a few children of his own, and his wife was mild mannered, she lacked the ferocity our mother had and the animosity she held toward her children.

Memories of home were not something he took great joy in looking into. He simply felt ragged and tired when it came to the thought that one day he'd have to go back and apologize, empty handed and torn apart. His parents would hear no excuses; undoubtedly there would be punishment for ignoring their wishes.

The woman did not come back until darkness began to fall.

She held a tray with the necessities for tea and despite her lack of painted face held the grace of a geisha when she kneeled down to serve it.

"I hope you don't mind the company," she sang.

Even if he did there was nothing he could do to deter the woman, she would stay anyway and he remembered from their last exchange that he should accept her hospitality.

"How do you take your tea?" her small hands held a cup the color of her eyes, deep, foreboding, red.

"Plain," Chikage nodded at the glass in her hands, welcoming the idea of the first civil thing he'd done in what felt like years.

"Tell me your proper name boy," she demanded, losing the lilt to her words.

"You tell me yours," he retorted, the calm he felt dispersed as easily as it came.

"Fair enough," she sighed tucking a few fallen strands of hair behind her ears, "my name is Rei – Rei Kuze of the Northern clan."

The way she explained it made it seem like her clan – or lack thereof – still held some kind of ground within the world of the oni.

In reality they were wiped out long ago, while Chikage was still learning the ways of the oni. If the woman held some sort of grandiose pride for that then she was daft.

"Chikage," he nodded at her, "you already know my clan."

"That I do," she hummed, "I believe I met your father once, quite some time ago."

"How old _are_ you?" he sneered.

Her hands flew to her mouth nearly spitting out her tea.

"One does not ask a woman's age Chikage!" she screeched, her voice finally rising above its monotone.

He marveled at her lack of propriety, for every move she made that spoke of years learning to be graceful her ability to drop the honorifics at a drop of a pin showed another side of her.

"Does it matter?" she asked, cheeks tinging a strange color red, something he did not expect from a woman of her temperament.

"I suppose not," he smirked.

"How is Hakuoki doing?"

He couldn't help but to be curious as to how the man that bested him did after their skirmish, he'd likely been hurt more than he was; the healing abilities of a demon barely flooded his veins.

"He is in the care of my familiar and his woman, why does he have a demon name?" she asked.

"He fairs well?" He dodged her question to the best of his ability

"Of course not," she grumbled, "he is weak; there is no way to tell how his bastardized blood will help him, now answer me."

"He wouldn't die even if he killed himself," Chikage mused, finding a sick sense of enjoyment that his opponent stayed alive; there was no better match than him when it came to sparring. They would never be friends, he knew that, but with all animosity removed he'd make a decent comrade of sorts.

"Don't hold your breath," Rei sighed, "there are no promises here."

Chikage was no good at discerning lies from truth, but the woman seemed earnest enough and for that he was grateful.


	3. Blood

"Is he getting any better?" Chizuru's saucer eyes gleamed up to her, tears unshed at least for the moment.

"His wounds refuse to heal," Rei shrugged taking a long drag from her kiseru.

"What do we do?" Atashi giggled, finding some unseen source of the conversation amusing.

"We wait," Rei conceded.

"His blood should be healing him," Chizuru whined.

"His blood is –"

"Can I talk to him?" Kazama limped in, holding his side.

"You shouldn't be out of bed," Rei growled.

"Are you alright?" asked Chizuru.

"I'm fine –"

"Obviously you are not!" Rei yelled.

The man should not have been out of bed, his wounds were healing at a pace normal for an oni. But, he nearly died which not many could brag about. He wasn't healed, not by a long shot.

"If I can walk –"

"You are daft, I did not drag your corpse up a –"

"Rei saved you," Chizuru finally butted in.

"Damn right I did and I will not do it again, if you fall here you stay," Rei shrugged feigning indifference.

In reality she wanted nothing more than to dump her ashes on his forehead for acting like he was alright, like he could walk around.

She would have none of the man she was trying to ensnare traipsing about on a wounded body.

His imperfections could be looked past; his pigheadedness was something she could not stand however.

"I know what will help Hakuouki," he eyed Rei carefully.

"We will not, as three pure blood –"

"Let me speak you harpy," Kazama grumbled.

"Please Rei-san, if it can help him I need to know," Chizuru pled.

"We – the three of us – we're all pure blood oni, one of us could give him enough of our blood to help the healing process," Kazama explained, eyes still trained on Rei's face.

"Before you give the girl any more ideas I'll have you know that it's a three way shot, none of us could be a perfect donor if someone is _wrong_ about this we could kill him," she shot back.

Oni blood, much like that of the humans was not universal, it was impossible to say if any of their blood would serve as a supplement to that which was coursing within him.

In Rei's mind it truly wasn't worth the trouble, the spilling of her own blood was not something she was keen on doing for some man she had no connection to. It didn't matter to her if he lived or died. It was at one point an undoubtable fate he had, humans perished. Oni however did not.

He reached for a power he should not have had, and for that she thought he should suffer the consequence.

Chizuru on the other hand was staring holes into her, all but begging – which Rei knew was not beyond her – for someone to save her man.

"If I – I mean we, if we can do this I want to try," Chizuru decided with a childlike resolve.

Her innocence would soon get her man saved as much as it would get them both killed.

"I'll need samples of his blood," Rei decided – from the kindness of her heart – that she'd do what she could. If not for Kazama then to quell the beast that was Chizuru's sobbing and begging.

"You're going to help?" Atashi marveled, skipping about.

"For a price," Rei grinned.

"What do you want?" Chizuru cried, "I will give you anything!"

The girl's desperation gnawed somewhere deep within Rei's chest, it was almost heartwarming to see someone want something with so much fervor, especially for someone else's benefit. But inanely the woman was also very selfish.

The man was slated to die long ago, perhaps in some battle he was not strong enough for, instead he cheated, and he looked death in the face and laughed.

Now, it was coming back for him and he still fought.

"It will be his decision, I need everyone to leave," Rei muttered, staring a hole into Kazama.

"I wouldn't –"

"Leave Kazama, this is not your fight," Rei barked.

Everyone turned off, likely leaning their ears against the rice papered doors – curse them for their impracticality when it came to privacy – leaving Rei alone with the glorified corpse of the man named Hijikata.

"You, wake up we need to talk," Rei shook his arm knowing all too well she was causing him pain, she didn't care either way.

The man grunted in response, perhaps due to the stimuli more than the pain.

"Look at me," she demanded.

Two purple eyes glared up at her, the man had gusto for someone who was holding death by the sleeve.

"I have a proposition for you," she grinned cheekily.

"What," he rasped.

"You are not a demon, do not follow the illusion that you are anything but a flawed human –"she paused boring into his very soul – "but I am in need of a special kind of help."

OOooooOOOOooOOOOooOOOOoOOo

The door slid closed the minute they walked out of the door and she had to have known that they were going to listen because the hushed voices were impossible to hear, even with a fine tuned ability to hear better than most.

It didn't open again until Rei slammed it back open, an unreadable expression on her face.

"He agreed to my… deal," she sighed.

"You're going to help him?" Chizuru perked up from the revelation.

"Indeed it looks like I am," Rei quipped.

"When do we start?" Chikage was finally interested.

"Let be borrow your kodachi," Rei demanded holding her hand out impatiently to Chizuru.

"Wha –"she gasped, "What do you need it for?"

"I told you I need his blood," Rei managed to sound practical though it did little to quell the horror on Chizuru's face.

"And you can't get it from his wound?" She balked.

"No," was all Rei responded with offering a rather noncommittal shrug.

Chizuru unfastened the small sword and handed it over with shaking hands to Rei, Kazama found the entire situation strange. He never had to test a demon's blood before, their clan was enough to discern their type.

But, situations like that of Hijikata are left for dire measures.

Rei led the group back into the room and knelt by the man's bedside taking one of his hands gingerly as if it were made of poison itself.

"Once I get a sample from him, the rest of you are next," she mentioned once more reminding them that they were all involved.

It took not more than a precise slice on the man's hand to cause a downpour of his blood into a cup fetched from the floor, yet another wound he'd have to heal.

"We'll need more containers," Rei sighed, motioning for her familiar to scurry off and return in a flash.

"Who's next," she sang.

Chizuru took a few trepidation filled steps, holding a shaking hand before her.

Rei, with as much grace as before took Chizuru's hand in hers and made an exact cut which flowed far less than Hijikata's.

"Got it," Rei said.

"Well aren't you going to test it?" Chikage chided, hoping to incite some kind of reaction from the woman.

"Actually –"she drawled sarcastically, "I was."

She took a rather small amount of both samples and plopped them onto Hijikata's bedside table.

"The original serum was made from my blood," Chizuru confided.

"The original was made for the Shinsengumi alone, who knows what was used once he ran out of samples of your blood," Chikage looked over to Chizuru who offered a disheartened nod.

Rei mixed the two together and a billow of smoke filled the air with a noxious fume.

"You aren't a match," she eyed Chizuru carefully, "looks like your father went outside of your clan."

There were only four clans technically within the demon hierarchy. The northerners that Rei belonged to, the eastern territories belonged to that of Chizuru, the west was the Kazama and finally the south that belonged to Sen-hime.

Realistically speaking the south would not involve itself in such dealings, Sen was the type of ruler than allowed no amount of dalliances with the humans outside of trying to save Chizuru from the other clans. Which left either the Kuze – whom were largely extinct as far as Chikage knew – and his own the Kazama.

He couldn't imagine his family having anything to do with the entire thing considering the blood had to have come from a royal lineage to be considered entirely pure.

"Kazama," Rei called, waking him from his stupor, "I will go next, please do the honors."

She pulled the sleeve of her kimono down her slender arm and held a wrist out to him, ready to be torn into for the sake of Hijikata, something the Chikage found entirely out of sorts for the woman, at least in his short time of knowing her.

He took hold, unwavering in his resolve to make a perfect cut, of course she wouldn't scar not often demons were left with marks from something so simple but one could easily tell the woman had no experience with pain or battle, she was unmarred entirely from what he could see.

She hissed when the blade slid across her skin, nearly ripping her arm from him, but with a steely determination she held fast.

"Hurry up and take what you need," she whined, paling at the scene, "I do not like my own blood," she averted her gaze anxiously.

Chikage found her reaction nothing short of amusing but held the guffaw of laughter that bubbled in his chest.

A few drops of her blood mingled with Hijikata's and unlike Chizuru's nothing happened. There was no smog, no fumes or miasma.

Her tone betrayed the look on her face when she spoke.

"It looks to me like we have a match," her hikimayu knit together alluding to the world of confusion she must have felt.


	4. Protect

He shared her blood, at least in some part and Rei wasn't sure how she felt about the whole ordeal. Shocked may have been it, yet there was something deeper, maybe hope.

She knew that Hijikata's choice meant that there was a chance – albeit quite small – that her clan might survive.

Of course she'd have to break through to Chizuru, though frankly she didn't care if the woman had any protest, her man was the one who made the choice and if she was going to save him it was not in Chizuru's best interest to start making demands.

"Atashi, please see to it that Chizuru makes her way to the garden and ensure her comfort until I call for you again," Rei sighed combing her hands through her hair, that unfortunately due to her work had little time to be perfected.

"And what will I do with Kazama-san?" Atashi asked, twirling about.

"He is to stay herewith me," Rei spared the man her usual glare, if she needed him – which she did – she was not about to squander the man's help because of her foolishness.

Once Atashi dragged Chizuru out of the room, Rei beckoned Chikage over to the man's bedside.

"We need to give him enough blood to sustain all that he has lost, I – I will not be able to do it on my own."

Rei cringed, twice in one day had she asked someone for their help, first in Hijikata who solidified her chances at sorting out what happened to her clan and then to Kazama who in reality did not have to help her at all for he owed her very little.

"Afraid?" Chikage snorted, pretending to wipe tears from his eyes.

Rei bristled, "how anyone found you a fearsome warrior remains to be seen."

"I jest lady Rei," he retorted.

"I am a princess as much as that beast from the south," she growled, remembering that despite her lack of a clan she was the rightful heir to the Kuze lineage, not having them there did not take away from that.

"I – I am sorry," he offered, "Rei-hime?"

She knew he was just humoring her, likely chastising in his own way, amused that the remaining member of a dead clan requested respect from a family that could easily take her land now.

"Just get started, I'd loathe for this to take all day," she sighed, holding her wrist out once more.

OoOOOOoOOOoOOOoOOoO

Her pale skin still remained unmarred from the slashing, blood pooled into a rather makeshift receptacle awaiting it's transfer into Hijikata's dying body.

"This is the first time I'd ever seen something like this happen," Rei murmured, gazing intently at the free-flowing blood, "honestly, it doesn't even bother me that it is my own at the moment."

Kazama looked up to see her eyelashes drooping over her peculiar eyes, blinking off a slumber that would recover any wounds.

"When do I know when it's enough?" he asked feeling a pang of worry.

He looked over once more to see that the girl's head was resting on the corner of Hijikata's mat, breaths coming in short pants.

"Damn," Kazama sighed.

He slipped his arms under her limp form deciding that he couldn't just leave her on the ground. One, because she'd never forgive him, and two, because he'd felt guilty. He knew that her offering blood was something she did out of the kindness of her heart regardless of whatever deal she'd made with Hakuoki.

For reasons unknown he knew that she wouldn't have made an offer that didn't benefit him in some way as well.

She may not have seemed caring, perhaps lacking a single motherly bone in her body from what he saw - save for the affection she showed her familiar – but he could easily draw from the way she acted and was raised that she was at the very least a benevolent oni.

The creature that she was raising wasn't exactly a demon itself, perhaps some form of spirit that she'd taken in for some reason or another, it was strange in fact to see oni adopt anything as readily as she had, though he could only draw conclusions from what he saw rather than informed facts.

In a way she reminded him of his own mother in the way that their stern demeanor made for a horrible parent but a decent caretaker in that respect. They both had a sense of duty that carried them rather than an affection for those they cared for. It made for an interesting woman to say the least. She would never love, but she would do all she could to make it seem like she cared.

Atashi was standing at the woman's door, holding it open as if she'd known that Rei would be on her way.

"I assume her offering is what caused this," the girl's voice held an accusatory tone.

"Yes, but we have a large enough donation to definitely help Hakuoki," Kazama answered avoiding her harsh gaze – something she definitely had to have picked up from her mistress.

"Set her down and leave demon," the girl spat.

"I'm here to help," he demanded, brushing past her child-like frame and setting Rei's body on the tatami mat in the middle of the room.

"She doesn't need your help," Atashi growled, possessively shoving her body between him and her keeper.

He was awestruck by the level of ferocity the young creature held for the woman, more often than not protectiveness was exuded by the elder of a pack, it wasn't unheard of by any stretch to see someone care for a parent or sibling with such fervor. Though he could only hazard a guess as to the relationship between the two.

"I know you want to keep her safe but she needs someone to take care of the manor while she's out, please -" the concern in his voice startled them both surely, "please go see to Hijikata and Chizuru."

"Don't think I don't know how you demons work," she snarled, "you destroy and don't relent until all that's left is ruin."

Chikage was utterly stunned by the girl's revelation, she was afraid.

He didn't understand what they'd been through, it was lost to history as to what happened to the Kuze clan but the girl's fears represented something much larger than she fathomed.

Something horrible had happened and he couldn't quell the raging need to know what it was.


End file.
